One morning Ahab called the whole crew aft and nailed a Spanish gold ounce to the mainmast. Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw, he cried, shall have this gold. The harpooneers knew the whale at once: it was Moby Dick. Aye, it was Moby Dick that dismasted me, said Ahab, and I'll chase him round the Horn and round the Norway maelstrom and round perdition's flames before I give him up. Starbuck, the chief mate, a steady and earnest man, said he had come to hunt whales for oil, not for his captain's vengeance. To be enraged with a dumb thing seems blasphemous, he said. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man, answered Ahab. I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. The crew cheered and drank from the harpoon sockets, and Starbuck said nothing more.